The Heersink School of Medicine’s Board of Visitors is a small group of eminent leaders from business, academia, medicine, science, and public policy, with and without ties to Alabama or UAB, who serve as advocates and advisors on strategy, philanthropic initiatives, and community engagement and by providing independent perspectives on Heersink School of Medicine initiatives.
Co-chaired by Ted W. Love, M.D., and Gail H. Cassell, Ph.D., the board meets twice annually to advise Anupam Agarwal, M.D., senior vice president of Medicine and dean of the Heersink School of Medicine, in support of the school's vision of becoming the Preferred Academic Medical Center of the 21st Century.
Mary C. Battle, MSHA
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Mary Battle is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing with a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing. She earned a Master of Science degree in healthcare administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
For many years, Mrs. Battle worked in the healthcare industry, both in the clinical setting and for healthcare corporations that developed and managed physician provider networks, including the development of strategically significant relationships with payors, business, and industry.
Mrs. Battle was named to the Arthritis Foundation’s National Board of Directors in September 2014 and chaired the Arthritis Foundation Advisory Board in its Birmingham market. In addition, Mrs. Battle is active in fundraising activities for UAB’s efforts to develop more effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, and she currently serves on the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center Advisory Board and on the Patient and Family Services Committee. Mary is also a member of the Women of the Capstone, an organization that supports students, faculty members, and an endowed scholarship for women.
Most recently, she and her husband Bill co-chaired the initial fundraising activities for the Performing Arts Academic Center at the University of Alabama and are being inducted into the 1831 Society Inaugural Class at the University of Alabama.
Tom A. Blount
Los Angeles, California
Thomas A. Blount is an architect, AIDS activist, re-developer of historical architecture, and arts patron with deep Alabama roots.
Born in Montgomery on VJ Day, 1945, Mr. Blount is one of five children of Winton M. Blount, who served as Postmaster General of the United States under President Richard Nixon and was a philanthropist and notable patron of the arts. The Blount Cultural Park in Montgomery is home to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, for which Mr. Blount serves as an executive board member. When he was in his mid-30s, his father commissioned him to design the theater, and he also master planned the 250-acre park that serves as its setting.
Mr. Blount divides his time between Key West, Florida, Los Angeles, California, and Rome, Italy. Now retired as an architect, he has launched several real estate and construction-related companies. In 2001, he produced The Trip, a film relating to social issues that interest him.
He is active in the LGBT community as a human rights and AIDS awareness activist. He routinely donates his time and money to such diverse groups as the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, African Parks Organization, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the ACLU, UAB’s 1917 Clinic, and Project Inform.
He attended Vanderbilt University and received his architectural degree from North Carolina State University, but considers his main education a lifelong interaction with diverse peoples and distant lands.
Gail H. Cassell, Ph.D, Co-Chair
Carment, Indiana
Dr. Gail H. Cassell is Senior Lecturer, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Senior Scientist, Division of Health Equity, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston. She retired from Eli Lilly and Co. as Vice President for Scientific Affairs and Distinguished Lilly Research Scholar in Infectious Diseases.
A native of Goodwater, Alabama, she earned her bachelor’s degree in microbiology at the University of Alabama where, in 1993, she was selected as one of the top 31 female graduates of the University’s Centennial of the admission of female students. She earned her Ph.D. in microbiology from UAB and chaired its Department of Microbiology for 10 years, during which it ranked first in NIH research funding. Dr. Cassell is a key leader in policy and legislation related to biomedical research and public health. She has served as an advisor to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and as an invited participant in numerous Congressional hearings related to infectious diseases, anti-microbial resistance and biomedical research.
She has served on the advisory boards for the Directors of the NIH and the Centers for Disease Control, the Secretary of Health and Human Services Advisory Councils of Public Health Preparedness, and the FDA’s Science Board. She served a four-year term as a member of the NIH Science Management Board, the newly appointed NIH Board of Trustees, and the Advisory Councils of the Fogarty International Center of NIH and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. She served as a member of the Steering Committee of the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Medical Science Program. She was instrumental in establishment of the U.S./Russia Cooperative Medical Sciences and Training Program under the Bilateral Presidential Commission in 2009. She was elected in 2011 to membership on the U.S Council of Foreign Relations and is currently serving a second term on the Board of Governors of the American Academy for Microbiology.
Dr. Cassell has received numerous awards for her research in infectious diseases, including the CDC Honor Award in Public Health for exceptional leadership of the CDC’s Emerging Infectious Disease Plan; FDA Commissioner’s Citation as Chair of the review of science and technology at the FDA and senior author of FDA: Science and Mission at Risk 2008; the Emmy Klineberger-Nobel Award in 2008 by the International Organization for Mycoplasmology for lifetime research achievements; and the American Society for Microbiology/Federation of European Microbiology Societies Mäkelä–Cassell Exchange Program for pioneering international engagement for young scientists. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and has served two terms on its governing board.
Dr. Cassell is a former member of the board of Research!America and chair of the Burroughs Welcome Fund board. She has served on the Leadership Council of the School of Public Health of Harvard University, Executive Committee of Columbia University Medical Center Board of Visitors, Dean’s Advisory Council for Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, the Chancellor’s Advisory Cabinet for the University of Texas, and Advisory Council of the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health. She holds two honorary degrees (Doctor of Science, Thomas Jefferson University, Jefferson Medical College, and Doctor of Philosophy, Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico).
Dr. Cassell and her husband, Ralph H. Cassell, retired Regional Executive of PNC Bank (previously BBVA Compass Bank and former President of Compass Bank of Birmingham), have one daughter, Dr. Cynthia H. Cassell.
Sheri Cook, MBA, M.Ac.
Mountain Brook, AL
Sheri S. Cook currently serves as Senior Vice President, Human Resources for Altec Inc. The Birmingham-based company is an industry-leading provider of products and services to the electric utility, telecommunication, tree care, lights and signs, and contractor markets.
Mrs. Cook graduated summa cum laude from Vanderbilt University in 1989, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics and classical studies. She is also a 1993 graduate of the University of Virginia Colgate Darden School’s MBA program, where she received the Faculty Award. In 2018, she received a Master of Accounting from UAB’s Collat School of Business.
Prior to 2013, Mrs. Cook’s career was primarily focused on economics and finance. She has held various positions of increasing responsibility in business development and finance at Sonat Inc., Protective Life Corp., and Altec Inc. She also co-founded and served as managing partner for an energy project management and development firm, Kinetic Partners LLC.
Since 2014, Mrs. Cook has served on the board of First US Bancshares Inc. (Nasdaq: FUSB), where she chairs the board’s Asset Liability Committee and also serves on the Compensation and Executive, Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees.
She also serves on the boards of the YWCA of Central Alabama, Momentum, World Games 2021, and the McWane Science Center Endowment. Previously, she co-chaired the Tocqueville Society Committee for the United Way of Central Alabama, served as President of the IPC Foundation, and held various leadership positions for the Junior League of Birmingham. She is a member of the Rotary Club of Birmingham and also served as an elder and deacon at Independent Presbyterian Church.
Mrs. Cook and her husband Houston have two children, William and Sara Catherine.
Nancy E. Dunlap, M.D., Ph.D., MBA
Mountain Brook, AL
Dr. Nancy E. Dunlap completed her internship, internal medicine residency, and fellowship in pulmonary disease and critical care medicine at the UAB Heersink School of Medicine. She has provided expertise in diverse areas ranging from pulmonary medicine and epidemiology to healthcare administration and national healthcare policy.
A former Dean of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, she previously worked with the National Governors Association as Physician-in-Residence and on the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow, where she worked on the reauthorization of FDA legislation and issues related to Medicare, Medicaid, public health, and insurance.
Dr. Dunlap also served for 10 years as the Chief of Staff, Vice President for the Alabama Department of Public Health Tuberculosis Program and previously held positions as chief of staff, vice president for Ambulatory Services, and chief operating officer of The Kirklin Clinic at UAB. Dr. Dunlap is currently a Professor Emerita in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at UAB and Scholar at the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy.
Sara Finley
Nashville, Tennessee
Sara J. Finley, formerly served as senior vice president and general counsel of CVS Caremark Corporation (now CVS Health), a Fortune 10 New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) company and spent almost 20 years with CVS Caremark and predecessor companies before retiring from the company in 2015. Prior to its 2007 merger with CVS, Finley served as senior vice president, assistant general counsel, and corporate secretary of Caremark Rx, Inc., a Fortune 100 NYSE company based in Nashville, Tennessee. Finley is principal of Threshold Corporate Consulting, L.L.C., and serves on the boards of SonderMind based in Denver, Studio Bank based in Nashville, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center based in Nashville.
Finley has extensive nonprofit board experience, including her present board roles with The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, The Center for Nonprofit Management, Leadership Nashville, and the Vanderbilt University Law School Board of Advisors. She resides in Nashville and is a 2017 graduate of Leadership Nashville. Finley received her law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1985 after graduating from the University of Alabama in 1982. She began her career practicing law, first as an associate with Maynard, Cooper & Gale in Birmingham, Alabama, and later as an associate and partner with the national law firm, Kutak Rock LLP, based in Atlanta.
John I. Gallin, M.D., MACP
Birmingham, AL
John I. Gallin, M.D., MACP, was appointed to the dual roles of National Institutes of Health (NIH) Associate Director for clinical research and inaugural chief scientific officer of the Clinical Center in August 2016. He was the longest-serving director of the NIH Clinical Center (1994-2017) after serving nine years as scientific director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and chief of the Laboratory of Host Defenses NIAID. During his tenure as the director of the NIH Clinical Center, Gallin helped to lead the design, construction, and activation of a new NIH Clinical Research Center, which opened to patients in 2005. He also oversaw the establishment of a new curriculum for clinical research training, now offered globally and reaching over 25,000 students annually in 160 countries, as well as the development of new information systems for biomedical translational and clinical research.
In 2011, Gallin accepted, on behalf of the NIH Clinical Center, the Lasker–Bloomberg Public Service Award for its rich history of medical discovery through clinical research. He also oversaw the Clinical Pathophysiology Section in NIAID research laboratory where his primary research interests are rare immune disorders of phagocytes, with a focus on chronic granulomatous disease (CGD). His laboratory discovered and described the genetic basis for several forms of CGD and other disorders of phagocytes and has done pioneering research that has reduced life-threatening bacterial and fungal infections in patients with these disorders. He has published 379 articles in scientific journals and edited two textbooks – Inflammation, Basic Principles and Clinical Correlates (Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins, 1999, 3rd edition) and Principles and Practice of Clinical Research (Academic Press now in 4th edition).
Gallin is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a Master of the American College of Physicians and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians-London. He has received numerous awards, including the American Federation for Clinical Research Young Investigator Award (1984) and the Weill-Cornell Medical College Alumni Association Award of Distinction (2022). In March 2023, he retired from government service and will be pursuing research and educational activities as an NIH special volunteer.
Mike Goodrich
Birmingham, Alabama
Thomas Michael Goodrich was born in Milan, Tennessee, and moved to Birmingham in 1948. He graduated from Indian Springs School, earned a civil engineering degree from Tulane University, and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Alabama School of Law. He served as a captain in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and as Alabama Chief Justice Howell Heflin’s first law clerk and later as his administrative assistant.
Mr. Goodrich began his career at BE&K in 1972 as legal counsel. His responsibility grew along with the company, and he became vice president and general counsel. In 1989, he was named president; in 1995, CEO; and in 2003, Chairman. BE&K companies have built such diverse projects as Fulton County Stadium, Ericsson Stadium, Discovery Cove for SeaWorld, NASCAR Hall of Fame, and numerous industrial and telecommunications projects. In addition to work in the United States, BE&K operated an industrial construction company in Poland and Russia and a biotech-engineering firm in Helsinki, Finland. During his time as the company’s leader, BE&K was recognized by author Robert Levering and by Fortune magazine as “One of the 100 Best Companies to Work for in America.”
Mr. Goodrich is a past director of Energen Corporation, Synovus Financial Corporation, and AGI Shorewood Group. He is a Trustee Emeritus of the Eisenhower Fellowships, served on the national board of the Boy Scouts of America, and served as an elder and deacon at South Highland Presbyterian Church.
During his career, he has been recognized by numerous organizations. He was inducted into the National Academy of Construction in 2002. He received the Excellence in Construction Cornerstone Award by the Associated Builders and Contractors in 2002 and the NOVA award from the Construction Innovation Forum in 2003. He was inducted into the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Academy of Honor in 2007, as well as the Alabama Business Hall of Fame in 2012. He received the Brewer/Torbert Public Service Award from Alabama Appleseed Center in 2011.
In 2003, after chairing the $392 million Campaign for UAB, he received the President’s Medal from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
He and his wife, Gillian White Goodrich, were honored by the Alabama Chapter of Fundraising Professionals as Outstanding Civic Leaders in 2004 and as Outstanding Philanthropists in 2011. They have four children and nine grandchildren.
Harry B. Greenberg, M.D.
Stanford, California
Dr. Harry Greenberg is an Active Emeritus Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Medicine & Microbiology & Immunology at Stanford University Medical School. He is also a Co-Director of the Stanford Clinical and Translational Science Center.
His research career has focused broadly on viruses that infect the gastrointestinal tract, lungs, and liver with an emphasis on rotaviruses, pathogenesis, immunity, and vaccines. He has published over 500 primary research articles, reviews, and book chapters and was a co-inventor of the first licensed rotavirus vaccine. He was also part of the team that developed the Indian ROTAVAC vaccine. His research has also involved studies of Noroviruses, Hepatitis B and C Viruses, and Influenza Virus.
Dr. Greenberg received his M.D. from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, completed residency training in internal medicine at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, and a GI fellowship at Stanford University. He served as a medical officer in the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at the NIH for nine years before joining the Stanford faculty in 1983. Dr. Greenberg served as Chief of the Stanford Division of Gastroenterology, as Associate Chief of Staff for Research at the Palo Alto VA Hospital, and as Acting Chair of the Department of Medicine on two occasions.
Dr. Greenberg has been elected to several scholarly societies such as ASCI and AAAS. He is a past president of the American Society of Virology, has served as the chair of the FDA Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biologics, and as the Chair of the Medical Sciences Section of the AAAS. He was the Chief Scientific Officer at Aviron (later Medimmune Vaccines) during a leave of absence from Stanford. During that time, he helped develop and license a live attenuated influenza vaccine. Finally, Dr. Greenberg was the founding Director of the NIH-funded Stanford Center for Clinical and Translational Medicine and has played a leadership role in that center since its inception in 2008.
Mimi Head
Birmingham, Alabama
Maryam “Mimi” Birjani Head is Chairman and Majority Owner of Ram Tool & Supply Company Inc., which provides construction products for commercial projects ranging from concrete slabs and rebar to products that a company would need at the very end of a job, such as brooms and Windex. She also serves as Chairman and CEO of Giles and Kendall Corporation, a manufacturer of aromatic cedar wood products with plants in Alabama and Missouri.
A native of Iran, she received her bachelor’s degree in political science from Western College for Women at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Mrs. Head spent 15 years doing volunteer work, then became a marketing officer at National Bank of Commerce before she purchased Ram Tool and Supply in 1984. At that time, the company was doing approximately $1.5 million to $2 million in sales each year. In 2007, after almost a quarter of a century under her leadership, the company surpassed $178 million in revenue and was the 33rd largest private company in Birmingham. It remains one of the nation’s largest woman-owned businesses.
In 2008, Mrs. Head told the Birmingham Business Journal that her strategy has been to try to instill a sense of urgency in the company, particularly in regard to customer service. “If you do the right thing, your business will succeed,” Mrs. Head said. That culture — as well as some strategic planning — helped the company experience sustained growth throughout its history. From one office in Birmingham with 12 employees, it has grown to 32 warehouse distribution centers and more than 700 employees across the eastern United States from Texas to Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
She served on the Board of Directors for the Birmingham Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta from 2004 to 2011, and currently serves on the board of the UAB Health System. She is a past board member of the EyeSight Foundation of Alabama and is a member of Downtown Rotary. In 2003 she was inducted into the Alabama Hall of Fame for women business owners.
Mrs. Head and her late husband, Beverly Pierce Head, III, have two adult daughters, Hillery Head Perkins and Maye Head Frei, both of whom serve in leadership roles with Ram Tool. A son, Barton Head, passed away in 1983.
Mary Heersink
Dothan, Alabama
Mary Heersink is an internationally known food safety advocate and the author of E. Coli O157: The True Story of a Mother’s Battle with a Killer Microbe. In it, she recounts the harrowing experience of her son Damion, who in 1992 at the age of 11 ate contaminated hamburger meat at a Boy Scout outing and spent six-and-a-half weeks near death in pediatric intensive care. Despite Damion’s ultimate victory over E. coli O157:H7, Mrs.Heersink found her confidence in our food safety systems shaken. Her encounters with ineffective government agencies led her to co-found S.T.O.P. (STOP Foodborne Illness), a national grassroots organization dedicated to preventing illness and death from foodborne pathogens. STOP is widely credited as being the driving force behind the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011, the most sweeping food safety legislation passed in 70 years.
Mrs. Heersink has served on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. She has also testified before the U.S. Congress and is frequently asked to present at scientific meetings, both nationally and internationally. She again serves on the Board of Directors for STOP Foodborne Illness which is launching a Consumer-Industry collaboration to fully implement and enforce food safety policy.
Mrs. Heersink currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Masters of Global Heath Programme, a joint initiative between McMaster University in Canada, Maastricht University in the Netherlands, Manipal University in India, Thomassat University in Thailand, The University of Southeast Norway, and Universidad del Rosario in Columbia. She has served on Boards of Directors for numerous nonprofit and civic organizations in the Dothan area, including Boys and Girls Clubs of Dothan, the Wiregrass Museum of Art, Houston Academy, and Landmark Park.
Mrs. Heersink has been married for 40 years to Dr. Marnix Heersink, an ophthalmologist in Dothan. (Mrs. Heersink’s father, Dr. Marshall Parks, is widely considered “the father of pediatric ophthalmology.”) Trained as a visual artist, she is illustrating the next generation publication to Dr. Parks’ Atlas of Strabismus Surgery, collaborating with one of his trainees, Dr. Irene Ludwig.
The Heersinks have six children – including two ophthalmologists, a dentist, and three current medical students – and eleven grandchildren. Mrs. Heersink splits her time between Dothan and Velp, The Netherlands, where the couple renovated a 16th-century castle in collaboration with a historical preservation foundation.
Gordon J. Lee
Santa Monica, California
Gordon J. Lee is president and CEO of Princeton Credit and Princeton Ventures. For nearly three decades, he has provided financing and financial advisory services for a wide array of corporate clients whilst consulting to a variety of international technology startups.
Gordon has served over 25 years on the board of advisors for the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, sitting on a variety of subcommittees, including education, audit, and development. For the past 19 years, he’s served on the UCLA Hospital System Finance/Audit, Operations & Strategy Committee that meets monthly with the CEO and C-suite executives to discuss complex challenges facing the enterprise. He also serves on the Health Systems International Advisory Committee which assesses UCLA Health’s global engagement strategy through setting priorities and implementing programs that lead to international prominence for the health system.
Several years ago, Gordon was selected by former University of California (UC) President Janet Napolitano to serve as a founding member of her Fiat Lux Alliance advisory council. Today, the committee advises current UC President Michael Drake on an assortment of initiatives vital to the institution.
In his efforts to bring novel and relevant UC technologies to the market, Gordon assists deans, clinicians, and professors in evaluating the viability of their inventions as a commercialized product. His vast network of relationships with companies like Google, Samsung, Hyundai, and Salesforce has led to joint research, future product development, and strategic investments.
He is a committee member of UC Davis’ Science Translation and Innovative Research (STAIR) grant program, in which he evaluates embryotic stage proof-of-concept technologies. He is also a judge for the annual UCSF Digital Health Hub Awards.
He is a senior advisor to the CEO and its leadership at Ankura, a global firm advising the world’s largest governments, businesses, and institutions in solving their most challenging and complex problems. His interests extend to advising multiple companies like EduWorks and creating health care startups to solve the gaps to patient and hospital operational care.
Aside from his enjoyably hectic life, you can find him at the gym five days a week in a BodyPump or Spinning exercise class, spending quality time with his two adult sons, or feverishly over the stove with one of his hundreds of cookbooks. He’s a patron of the arts, paddle tennis player, weekend golf hack, health care/AI junkie, foodie, and wine enthusiast.
James C. Lee, III
Birmingham, Alabama
James C. Lee, III, “Jimmy,” currently serves as Executive Chairman and Owner of Buffalo Rock Company, one of the largest privately held, family-owned Pepsi franchises in the United States.
Jimmy began his career with Buffalo Rock Company, working summers, at the age of 12. After graduating from Auburn University in 1970, he spent one year working with Pepsi Cola Company. He then came to work for Buffalo Rock Company on a full-time basis in 1971. Jimmy ultimately became the fourth generation Lee to manage the business and is currently involved at a strategic level with company operations as Executive Chairman.
As a Birmingham resident, Jimmy concentrates his efforts toward community involvement. With his encouragement and support, Buffalo Rock makes significant contributions to the community through sponsorship of charitable events, including donations of time, services, and product. In addition, a civic project with which Jimmy has had a passion for is Bent Brook Golf Course. The 27-hole facility was the first privately-owned public course in Birmingham that offers residents an upscale alternative for public golf.
In 2015, Jimmy was inducted into the Alabama Business Hall of Fame and received Auburn University’s Jefferson County Distinguished Alumnus of the Year. Jimmy was also the recipient of the 2013 Alabama Newcomen Award and was named the 2011 March of Dimes Citizen of the Year.
Jimmy is currently a member of the Alabama Beverage Association, Board Member of the Mike Slive Foundation, Board Member of the Coach Safely Foundation, Board Member of the UAB Heersink School of Medicine’s Board of Visitors, and Board Member of the Lord Wedgwood Charity. Jimmy is also the Past Director of the Birmingham Business Alliance, Past President of Children’s Hospital Foundation Board, Past Chairman of the Board of Children’s Hospital of Alabama, Past President of the Alabama Beverage Association, Past Board Member of the American Beverage Association, Past President of the Vestavia Park Foundation, and Past President of the Auburn University Athletic Development Council.
Ted W. Love, M.D., Co-Chair
Sonoma, California
A native of Huntsville, Alabama, Dr. Ted Love holds a B.A. in molecular biology from Haverford College and an M.D. from Yale Medical School. He completed his internal medicine and cardiovascular fellowship training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He served as Chief Executive Officer of Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT), an early-stage biotech company focused on severe blood-based diseases, the most advanced of which is sickle-cell disease.
Prior to joining GBT, he was Executive Vice President of Research and Development and Technical Operations at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., from 2010 until 2012. Before that, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nuvelo, Inc., from March 2001 to January 2009, having been appointed President and Chief Operating Officer in January 2001. He joined Nuvelo from Theravance, where he served as Senior Vice President of Development from February 1998 to January 2001. Prior to that, he spent six years at Genentech, Inc., holding senior management positions in medical affairs and product development.
He served for six years on the 29-member California Independent Citizens Oversight Commission, which oversees the $3 billion allocated to stem cell research authorized by California Proposition 71. Dr. Love currently serves as a director of Kalobios, Oncothyreon, and Amicus Therapeutics.
He and his wife, Joyce, have two daughters.
George D. Lundberg, M.D.
Los Gatos, California
Dr. George D. Lundberg is Editor in Chief of Cancer Commons and the blog Curious Dr. George in Mountain View, California. He is also Editor at Large at Medscape, a Clinical Professor of Pathology at Northwestern University, and President and Chair of the Board of Directors of The Lundberg Institute. Dr. Lundberg has 41 years of combined experience as Editor in Chief of The Journal of the American Medical Association, 10 AMA specialty journals, American Medical News, Medscape, The Medscape Journal, e-Medicine from WebMD, and MedPage Today from Everyday Health. In 2018, he was Chief Medical Officer of Self Care Catalysts in Toronto, Canada.
Born in Florida, he grew up in rural Silverhill, Alabama, and did his undergraduate work at North Park College and the University of Alabama before attending medical school at the University of Alabama School of Medicine (now UAB). He completed a clinical internship in Hawaii and a pathology residency in San Antonio, then served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War in San Francisco and El Paso, leaving as a lieutenant colonel after 11 years.
Dr. Lundberg was then Professor of Pathology and Associate Director of Laboratories at the Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Medical Center for 10 years, and for five years was Professor and Chair of Pathology at the University of California-Davis. Dr. Lundberg has worked in tropical medicine in Central America and Forensic Medicine in New York, Sweden, and England. His major professional interests are toxicology, violence, communication, physician behavior, strategic management, and health system reform.
He holds earned and honorary degrees from North Park College, Baylor University, the University of Alabama, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the State University of New York, Syracuse, Thomas Jefferson University, and the Medical College of Ohio.
A past president of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, he is a frequent lecturer and video guest as well as a member of the National Academy of Medicine. In 2000, the Industry Standard dubbed Dr. Lundberg “Online Health Care’s Medicine Man.”
He and his wife, Dr. Patricia Lundberg, have five children, 11 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.